For his 14th studio album, musician and mandolin hero Marty Stuart wasn’t looking to branch out into hip hop, or cut an LP of duets with Def Leppard and Tony Bennett.

“What inspires me now, is traditional country music,” says Stuart. “It’s the music I most cherish, the culture in which I was raised. It’s the bedrock upon which the empire of country music is built, the empowering force that provides this genre with lasting credibility. It’s beyond trends and it’s timeless. With all that being said, I found traditional country music to be on the verge of extinction. It’s too precious to let slip away. I wanted to attempt to write a new chapter.”

That new chapter is named Ghost Train (The Studio B Sessions), and was recorded in the same Nashville RCA studio where Stuart cut his first session at age 13 as a member of Lester Flatt’s band. The 14-track LP features “Porter Wagoner’s Grave,” a new Stuart original, and “Hangman,” which Stuart co-wrote with Johnny Cash a mere four days before his death.

“Studio B has a profound pedigree; it’s where so much of American music’s legacy was forged, certainly country music’s,” says Stuart. “And sonically, this is a room that welcomes music. It seemed to me that in order to authentically stage a brand new traditional country music record we should bring it back to the scene of the crime.”

Ghost Train (The Studio B Sessions) Track List:

1. Branded (written by Marty Stuart)
2. Country Boy Rock & Roll (written by Don Reno)
3. Drifting Apart (written by Marty Stuart)
4. Bridge Washed Out (written by Warner Mack)
5. A World Without You (written by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith)
6. Hummingbyrd (written by Marty Stuart)
7. Hangman (written by Marty Stuart and Johnny Cash)
8. Ghost Train Four-Oh-Ten (written by Marty Stuart)
9. Hard Working Man (written by Marty Stuart)
10. I Run To You (written by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith)
11. Crazy Arms (written by Ralph E. Mooney and Charles P. Seals)
12. Porter Wagoner’s Grave (written by Marty Stuart)
13. Little Heartbreaker (written by Marty Stuart and Ralph E. Mooney)
14. Mississippi Railroad Blues (written by Marty Stuart)

By Kevin Richards